Page 47 of Madam, May I

“What don’t you have figured out, Lo?” she asked, stroking her bottom lip as she assessed him and came to her own conclusion.

Am I right?

“Nothing,” he muttered, before turning and walking back to the table to open his book bag. “Your test is coming up, and with the holidays we will lose a lot of time—”

“Lo,” she said, interrupting him with ease.

He paused in his movements but didn’t look to her.

She rose from the sofa and went over to him, covering one of his hands with her own. “You can talk to me. I’m a good listener,” she said. “And I owe you so much more than you know for helping me start to see the world differently.”

He raised his head. “Just trying to figure out what to get my girl for Christmas,” he said.

Well, I was wrong.

Desdemona laughed. “That’s all? That’s easy. Jewelry,” she said, moving away from him and dropping down on her sofa before she straightened the skirt of the kelly green long-sleeved wrap dress she wore. “And of course, sex along with the jewelry, especially while wearing the jewelry.”

Loren remained quiet.

She looked up as she crossed her legs.

His eyes shifted away from hers. His discomfort was clear. Her mouthed formed a little “O” in illumination.

Well, I’ll be damned. I was right.

She rose from the sofa again and rushed over to his side. “Loren, are you a virgin?” she asked.

He cleared his throat and shifted away from the light hand she had rested on his upper arm. “Man, come on. Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.

She didn’t believe him.

He was easily in his mid-twenties, handsome, with a tall and sinewy physique like a basketball player. Nerdy? Yes. Lacking boldness and confidence or the cocky swagger of most twenty-somethings whose penis got hard with the simple blow of the wind against their crotch. Sure. But a virgin?

“Can we just get to your lessons, Ms. Smith?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, respecting that he felt ill at ease and not wanting to embarrass him any more than she already had.

She reclaimed her seat. “Which subject are we tackling today, Lo?” she asked.

“I’m not a virgin,” he said suddenly, slamming the sketch pad he held onto the top of the table with asplat.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay,” he affirmed, withdrawing a thin stack of papers to walk over to hand it to her.

“Are you gay?” she asked, looking up at him.

He gave her a screwed-up facial expression. “No,” he said, his voice hard.

“Okay, okay, okay,” she said, taking the worksheets from his hand.

“For these last couple of sessions, I think we should focus on reading comprehension,” he said, turning from her.

Desdemona nodded in agreement. “I agree. I’m pretty strong in math now and the reading is necessary for the other sections—”

“I want my girl to be happy.”

She stopped flipping through the pages. “I’m sure the jewelry will be a good gift,” she said, playing dim.